


Points on a Circle

by Lullabymoon



Category: Doctor Who, Sarah Jane Adventures
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2009-03-31
Updated: 2009-03-30
Packaged: 2017-10-17 15:38:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,475
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/178367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lullabymoon/pseuds/Lullabymoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Not all odd happenings are due to Aliens. Just some of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Points on a Circle

**Author's Note:**

> This is my only WIP and it hasn't been completely abandoned. It will be finished at some point but I'm not sure when that'll be.

Alan could tell Maria wasn’t in a good mood by the way the door slammed behind her. That and the thump of her bag as it hit the ground a minute later.

“Alright, love?” Alan waited until she had calmed down slightly before trying to get her to talk.

“Fine.” She huffed

Alan handed her a cup of tea.

“Okay, I’m not alright. Yasmin turned into a right cow on the way to the cinema and it turned into a massive fight.” Maria took a few sips of the tea and seemed to calm down. “They’ve all just gotten so moody lately, it’s unbelievable.” She frowned for a moment.

“Oh no, Maria, not every odd thing has got to do with aliens. You’re all just teenagers, your hormones are still running riot.” The look Maria shot him would have felled a lesser man. Or at least one not used to his daughter. “Or it could be just exams, everyone gets stressed when it comes to exams.”

Maria made a disgusted snort and Alan wisely left her to drink her tea in peace.

 

It was Maria’s turn to hear the door slam a week later. “You would not believe the day I’ve had.” Alan put his bag down on the table rather more heavily than he would have otherwise. “It’s not just the teenagers around here that have gotten moody.

“What happened?” Maria asked.

Alan sat with a sigh. “We started talking about the annual barbeque the company throws and all of a sudden Jack decided to badger Ken into having a swim party instead.”

Maria looked incredulous. “Isn’t that kind of young for all of you?”

“I know but he wouldn’t shut up about this amazing new pool. In the end Ken told him if he didn’t stop talking about it he would fire him. So then of course Jack went off in the huff.” Alan’s eyes were wide in disbelief.

“I thought Jack was laid back.”

“We all did but the worst part was when he came back twenty minutes later with a pile of leaflets for the pool and went around shoving them in everyone’s faces.” Alan shook his head. “I don’t know what got into him.” He sighed again and moved through to the kitchen.

He flicked the kettle on. “Do you want a cup?” He turned to face Maria when he got no response. “Maria?”

“The new pool?” She was frowning.

Alan sighed as he put the teabags down on the counter. “Yes.”

“It’s just that’s where everyone at school who has gotten really moody has started going to.”

“Maria, it could just be coincidence.” He ignored the look on her face as she continued.

“You’ve said yourself, Jack would normally never act like that.” She looked at him as he finished pouring the water into the teapot.

“Oh alright. I’ll look online and see what I can find out about the pool.”

Maria bounced up, “Thanks, Dad,” and kissed him on the cheek. Alan rolled his eyes as she turned in the computer and began loading the browser.

 

“Come on, Dad, there has to be something!”

Nothing is showing up, love.”

“Seriously, Dad, something isn’t right there.”

“Look, if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll go and check it out in person.”

“Really?” Maria looked hopeful.

“Yes, really.” Alan looked bemused. “The things I talk myself into. I’ll have to go shopping you know. I don’t know how I’ll cope.” The last was said teasingly with a wounded look and Maria laughed, hitting him lightly on the arm.

“You’ll survive.”

“Haven’t you got homework to be doing, instead of mocking your poor old Dad?”

“Yes, Old Dad.” She ignored the face he pulled as she moved away.

 

Maria sat in the living room, her books open in front of her but she paid them no attention as she waited for Alan. She perked up when she heard the front door opening and rushed to see him.

“I don’t know what you were worried about, Maria. The place was busy and everyone couldn’t have been nicer. In fact, I might go again on Friday, I could do with the exercise.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.” He put his things down. “Don’t look at me like that! The place is perfectly normal.” Alan moved through the house, leaving Maria slightly stunned.

 

“Come on, it’ll do you good.”

“But, Dad, I’ve got homework to do!”

“So you keep saying. Get your things.” Alan sounded annoyed.

“I can’t, Dad!”

“Be quiet and get your things!” Alan started to raise his voice.

“Dad, you need to,”

“NOW, MARIA!”

Maria looked like she’d been slapped and Alan stood shocked.

“Oh God, Maria, I’m so sorry.” He sat down on the couch, his eyes wide open and he opened and closed his mouth a few times before managing to speak.

“Are you alright, love?” Alan was apologetic.

Maria wiped away a tear but nodded and sat down beside him.

“I don’t know what came over me.”

“You’ve been acting pretty weird for the last couple of days, especially since,”

“Since I started going to the pool.” Alan finished. He sighed and they both sat lost in thought for a moment.

Alan jumped up and turned the computer on. “I’ll set up a programme, see if we can do a more thorough search and find anything out.”

“Okay.”

“It might take a few hours to turn up anything, especially if I have to weed through blogs and message boards. Why don’t you go and get something to eat. 

Maria shook her head. “I’ll be alright.” She looked at the commands he was typing. “How will you be able to tell what we’re looking for?”

“Well I’m setting up a bot that will weed through all the local server entries for references to the pool and,” He paused and glanced at her, “you really don’t want to know all the technical stuff do you?”

Maria smiled. “Not really.”

Alan smiled back. “Why don’t you pop the kettle on then, love?” Maria nodded and Alan resumed typing.

 

“Still nothing?”

“There are a few small incidents popping up but nothing substantial yet.”

Maria sat down beside him and they both stared at the screen while they waited for more results.

“I think I’ve got a better idea, Dad.” She dashed off and came back two minutes later, bags in hand. “Maybe we should go to the pool after all.”

“Oh no, Maria, we’re not going back there!” Maria threw a bag at him and Alan caught it automatically.

“We won’t actually go swimming, we’ll just sneak through the back and do some investigating while your programme is running.

“You’ve spent too much time with Sarah Jane.” Maria just looked at him, eyes wide in pleading. “Oh all right.” Alan gave up. “I’ve seen the staff entrance on the side of the building, our best bet is probably to go in and sneak through the changing rooms.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Maria grinned. “Let’s go.”

 

“Would it damage your street cred if we were to go in together?” Alan joked as they approached the pool entrance.

“Daaad!” Maria just rolled her eyes.

“Alright, alright, I can take a hint. I’ll just go and pay for the both of us.”

 

Inside, they had to split up to enter the changing rooms but they met up again in the staff area, although it took Alan longer to sneak through.

“Whoever is behind this, they could have at least have gotten staff who weren’t idiots. Someone actually wrote the door code beside the keypad.” Maria sounded disgusted as she checked they were still alone. “What took you so long?”

“Not all of us are used to this you know. Besides, I had to watch for someone to key in the code. Luckily I managed to create a distraction so he never actually came back here.” Alan looked around as well. “Which way?”

“Well I had a quick look along the corridor and it seems like it’s just staff rooms and empty cupboards. There’s stairs at the end though.”

“Shall we start there then?”

Maria nodded and as they reached the top of the stairs, they heard the door open behind them. They crept quickly down the stairs, pausing at the bottom to hear if they had been followed.

They both relaxed though when the footsteps faded and they turned the corner into another corridor.

What they saw caused them both to stop dead in the middle of the corridor. “I’m not seeing things am I?” Alan sounded worried.

“No, Dad, that’s a Police box.”

“In an American basement?”

Maria was too busy getting a closer look to reply immediately. “I don’t think this is an ordinary police box, Dad.” She looked amazed and Alan was about to question her when she continued, “I think it’s the TARDIS.


End file.
